Sermon Sunday 16th January 2022 All Saints Lydiard Millicent Genesis 1:1-19, Psalm 104 , John 1:1-11
Creation Care series two. 2nd Sunday of epiphany. Revd Tudor V Roberts
Most people do not associate meditation with Christianity, yet our Psalm today, Psalm 104 one of the most beautiful psalms on creation in the Bible, ends like this in Verse 34.
Psalm 104:34
New International Version
34 May my meditation be pleasing to him,
as I rejoice in the Lord.
Having just rejoiced in thirty-three verses of praise about creation the writer pauses and meditates. Somehow what we think about and ponder on effects what we do and who we are. I guess one of my prime motivations in doing a nine-part series on creation care is to enable us to hope again in the intrinsic goodness of creation. As psalm 104 vs 35 says, sin and wickedness have crept into the world, but that fact should not prevent us from worshiping the creator and rejoicing in what he has made.
Genesis chapter one declares that God spoke creation into being, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth . As Walter Bruggeman said “God and his creation are bound together by the powerful, gracious movement of God towards that creation. This text announces the deepest mystery, God will, and will have, a faithful relation with the earth. The text invites the listening community to celebrate that reality. The bonding is irreversible, God has decided it. The connection can never be nullified”.
In Genesis 1 we see in particular that God’s characteristic is to speak. He does this in verses 3,5,6,8,9,10,11,14,20,22,24,26,28,29.
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light
5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
6 And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.
8 God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.
9 And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.
11 Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so
Like a parent endlessly speaking to its young baby child, God calls out to the earth, he speaks a word and something new happens that was not there before, and creation comes into being.
Every part and moment of this creation is like the freshness of the morning, like the blackbird that has spring fresh from the word. Remember the hymn.
Morning Has Broken
Morning has broken,
Like the first morning,
Blackbird has spoken
Like the first bird;
Praise for the singing,
Praise for the morning,
Praise for them springing
Fresh from the Word
And of course, in John 2:1-11 Jesus in effect did the same thing, He spoke a word
John 2:7
English Standard Version Anglicised
7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim.
And as Jesus, the word incarnate on earth, issued his command it was done and six stone jars were filled with water by the servants, and when the “water” was taken to the head Steward he was amazed because it was no longer water, but a vintage Bordeaux Claret 1972 or 1st Century equivalent. In that moment, at that place, Cana in Galilee, a new creation took place for a young couple getting married. They had nearly run out of wine, a severe embarrassment at a first century Jewish Wedding. Jesus’s generous kind and amazing miracle not only saved the day, but the left-over wine also set this young couple up in the first years of their marriage. Suddenly they received over 180 gallons of prime wine. In the gospels every time a similar miracle took place e.g., the feeding of the 4,000 and the 5,000 it was a reminder to those who experienced it that there was God ‘s son with them , and he wanted people to know afresh God’s abundance and provision for their needs through creation’s bounty, be it bread, fish or wine. When I see the hedgerows full of sloe berries, when I see the wheat or barley waving in the summer sunshine, when I see the abundance of raspberries that grow in the Vicarage garden, each harvest is a little sign of God’s abundance, first seen in creation.
In Genesis we see God’s goodness and sense of order. This is In complete contrast to pagan myths where mythical gods engage in violent war to bring about creation, but Genesis one is calm and ordered.
Genesis 1:1-2:4
New International Version
The Beginning
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
This pattern and order in Creation in Genesis 1 is mirrored in Palm 104
2 The Lord wraps himself in light as with a garment;
he stretches out the heavens like a tent
3 and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters.
He makes the clouds his chariot
and rides on the wings of the wind.
4 He makes winds his messengers,[a]
flames of fire his servants.
5 He set the earth on its foundations;
it can never be moved.
6 You covered it with the watery depths as with a garment;
the waters stood above the mountains.
7 But at your rebuke the waters fled,
at the sound of your thunder they took to flight;
8 they flowed over the mountains,
they went down into the valleys,
to the place you assigned for them.
9 You set a boundary they cannot cross;
never again will they cover the earth.
10 He makes springs pour water into the ravines;
it flows between the mountains.
Note that here is God is personal.
He makes, sets, stretches, lays, and rebukes he is intimately involved in the making of the world and as Psalm 104 proclaims , in sustaining it too. In Psalm 104 God does not just create from day one, he sustains and feeds and provides every day, and in the case of lions and night beasts every night, see Psalm 104 .19 – 23.Again there is order and pattern, lions feed at night, then man goes off to his work and labours till evening. Throughout scripture work is good. Remember that God is in the Serengeti plain and its roaring lions, (thank you David Attenborough) and he is with people clocking on for work in the factories and fields and offices of this world (or working from home under Covid 19).
In God’s creation birds sing from the tops of trees, Badgers and goats inhabit the high places.
Cedars are used for timber yes, but they are also a refuge and a nesting place for Storks. Not everything in the Earth is centred around man! We say its our world and its our job to care for it. (Yes, God did give this earth to be cared for by humankind)
But note, the Bible says the Earth is the Lords (psalm 24.1) and he made it for his pleasure, and we are merely living on it and should be much gentler with how we treat its non-human inhabitants. St Francis and St Cedd had it right, animals felt at home with these two men. One in Northern Italy, one off the Coast of Northumberland, they respected that God had put animals on this planet, not for us alone, but for them ( the animals) and its part of God’s pleasure to see seals swim off Lindisfarne ,as it is to see birds flying and nesting in the mountains of Northern Italy.
He made grapes so we could have wine that gladdens the heart of man, Olive oil to make his face shine, and bread to strengthen his heart. Olives, Wine and Bread the staple foods of the Near Middle East, not as we think those luxuries found in the aisles of Waitrose.
How wonderful creation is. How wonderful Genesis one is in its description, of how God engaged in its making. The picture in Genesis 1 and Psalm 104 and John 2 is one where there is an abundance. Genesis proclaims a newness which places the world in a situation which di not previously exist. Here is a new world surging with the mystery of Gods gracious empowering speech. I watched a BBC program recently which described how it was only in the 20th Century that we discovered that Whales could talk with each other. Their speech is beautiful, and it was this discovery that helped lead to the Save the Whale movement because people said it was wrong to destroy such sensitive communicative creatures.
Doug and Jonathan Moo in their Book Creation Care (Zondervan publishing Grand Rapids USA) say:
“We are encouraged to celebrate the diversity of life God made seeing all of it as testifying to his wisdom and glory and recognising that other creatures belong not to us but to God himself”
It is one thing eating beef and Lamb which has been carefully raised (some would disagree with me), it is another destroying lions and tigers for the fun and thrill of it. Thankfully, the UK Govt, has recently banned bringing back so called “Trophy kills “ into this country.
Psalm 104 and Genesis 1 causes us to rejoice in a world where the sea teems with life including Leviathan (mystical animal or maybe a whale/Hippo/Crocodile animal).We do not know, but I would point you to the last chapters of Job where we have Gods longest speech in the Bible ,after his suffering Job is given a global picture of all the creatures that look to God for their sustenance.
The God of the Bible is the creator and sustainer or of all life on this planet including you and I who made in the image of God .Psalm 104 reminds us as does Job that much of creation is made to delight God, and as we learn to share in that delight it will make us people who tread more carefully on this world, just as Jesus, St Francis and St Cedd did. Maybe too it would benefit us to be like the Psalmist and spend time meditating on the Glory of God and the wonders of his creation. We will look on other Sundays how we need to mourn and lament for what we have done wrong with the earth. But today rejoice.
The Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.
Let us rejoice and shout for joy,
giving God the glory.
Glory to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit.
as it was in the beginning is now
and shall be for ever.
Amen. O WORSHIP THE KING.
All glorious above.
O gratefully sing
His power and His love:
Our Shield and Defender,
The Ancient of Days,
Pavilioned in splendour
And girded with praise.
God, our light, and our salvation:
illuminate our lives,
that we may see your goodness in the land of the living,
and looking on your beauty
may be changed into the likeness of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen
Tudor Roberts January 2022